The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 08, 1999
Filed:
Mar. 29, 1996
John Portman, Anahiem, CA (US);
Loi Ninh, Foothill, CA (US);
Garry Tillyer, Mission Viejo, CA (US);
Gerald Lester, Costa Mesa, CA (US);
John Newman, Mission Viejo, CA (US);
Sony Corporation, Tokyo, JP;
Sony Transcom, Inc., Irvine, CA (US);
Abstract
An in-flight entertainment system includes several liquid crystal display (LCD) retract units mountable in a passenger service unit of aircraft. Each of the LCD retract units includes an input connector and an output connector arranged such that signals provided to the input connector appear at the output connector. A system control unit (SCU) is also provided. The SCU is configurable to provide video, power and control signals independently to the input connector of each of the LCD retract units and is also configurable to provide video, power and control signals to the input connector of only a first of the LCD retract units. In the second configuration, the input and output connectors of successive LCD retract units are connected in a daisy chain fashion such that the same signals are provided to each of the LCD retract units. In another aspect of the present invention, each of the plurality of LCD retract units includes status communications bus electronics such as RS-485.